THE House of Representatives Standing Committee on the Environment has commenced an inquiry into the efficacy of past and current vegetation and land management policy, practice and legislation and their effect on the intensity and frequency of bushfires and subsequent risk to property, life and the environment.

On launching the inquiry, chair of the Committee, Ted O’Brien MP, said. "Many communities across Australia had experienced or were still in the grip of a bushfire crisis.

"We are currently experiencing a difficult, dangerous and potentially prolonged bushfire season," he said.

"We feel for our fellow Australians both impacted by, and trying to control, these devastating fires.

"The new inquiry provides an opportunity to better understand the practices relating to vegetation and land management, legislative frameworks, economic impact, mitigation strategies and the engagement of emergency services.

"The Committee understands people will have very passionate views about this, particularly in light of the current bushfire season. We look forward to hearing all views and accessing all the evidence put before us."

The Committee’s inquiry is in response to Minister for Natural Disaster and Emergency Management David Littleproud. It will have particular regard to matters including:

• past and current practices of land and vegetation management;
• the impact of current legislation and regulatory responses for landholders;
• the scientific basis behind relevant bushfire management activities;
• legislative capability at the local, state and federal levels requiring landholders to reduce fire risk on properties;
• the economic impact of severe fires in urban, regional, rural and remote areas;
• the progress and implementation of various state reviews over the last decade; and
• the engagement of emergency services with land management officials in managing fire risk.

Submissions to the inquiry will be accepted until 28 February 2020. The Committee intends to hold public hearings at various locations, which will be announced in due course on the inquiry website.

Submissions must address the inquiry’s terms of reference, which are available along with details on how to make a submission on the inquiry website.

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THE House Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training has launched an inquiry into the education of students in remote and complex environments.

Committee chair, Andrew Laming MP, said the inquiry would examine the performance of the Australian education system in remote and regional areas, its territories and in complex circumstances like drought and post-natural disaster.

"The committee looks forward to examining how Education meets the learning needs of students and how barriers in the education journey are overcome," Mr Laming said.

Areas of interest include:

• small remote schools; particularly in challenging areas like the tri-state area of central Australia;
• career counselling of remote students and means of connecting them to further education or local employment;
• challenges faced by regional schooling providers and initiatives in place;
• how families of vulnerable young children can access, enrol and remain in early learning, and the collaboration between early and primary education;
• the performance and monitoring of those in home schooling to maintain national minimum standards; and
• access and support to deliver the Australian Curriculum (including STEM) in a flexible way, to meet local learning needs and interests of remote students, including examples of innovative ways in which the curriculum is being delivered in remote schools.

Submissions to the inquiry are now open.

The committee said it welcomed advice and suggestions from the public on potential locations for public hearings to be held in 2020.

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THE Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is warning the community about scammers taking advantage of tax payment deadlines to scam unsuspecting victims.

"Late last year, we saw the biggest ever peak in money being lost to scammers pretending to be from the ATO," Assistant Commissioner Karen Foat said. Around $2 million was lost from November 2018 to January this year.

“I’m particularly concerned about the sophistication these scammers keep showing," Ms Foat said. "They are getting better at impersonating large organisations and ramp up in periods where people expect to hear from us, to make their threats appear more legitimate.

“While some taxpayers will have tax payments due from November, the ATO will always let you know how much you owe and the due date when we send your notice of assessment.

“If you’re unsure, you can check if you have a legitimate debt anytime by logging into your myGov account, or by contacting us or your tax agent.

“Our work to inform the community has paid off. We are seeing an increase in the number of people reporting scams and a decrease in the number of people handing over money to scammers. But any money going to scammers is too much," Ms Foat said.

“So far this year, 622 people paid over $2.1 million to scammers impersonating the ATO. We see these ATO impersonation scams by phone, email, SMS and even through message apps such as WhatsApp.

“We’ve also recently spotted scammers using the cardless cash feature offered by many banks. Through this feature, victims are sent codes to withdraw cash from an ATM, which they then read out to the scammer. 

“One Sydneysider was duped out of $500 through this tactic. After a client alerted him that he was scammed, he reported the incident to us.

“In October, we also saw a spike in email and SMS scams, often asking people to update their personal details. These scams usually contain links to fake online services to get personal information that enables scammers to steal your identity”, Ms Foat said.

SAFETY CHECK

The ATO will never:

• use aggressive or rude behaviour, or threaten you with immediate arrest, jail or deportation
• project our number onto your caller ID – so people can be sure that if there’s a number on their caller ID, it’s not the ATO calling
• request payment of a debt via cardless cash, iTunes or Google Play cards, pre-paid Visa cards, cryptocurrency, or direct credit to a personal bank account
• send an email or SMS requesting you click on a hyperlink to log on to government services

"If you receive a call, email or SMS and aren’t sure, it's okay to hang up or not respond. Instead, you can phone the ATO’s dedicated scam line 1800 008 540 to check if it was legitimate. You can also report a scam online at ato.gov.au/reportascam," Ms Foat said.

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THE reintroduction of the Fair Work (Ensuring Integrity No. 2) Bill 2019 is a welcome development and a sign to over 380,000 small building and construction businesses that the Parliament has not abandoned them, according to Master Builders Australia. 

CEO Denita Wawn said that while the Bill’s failure to pass last week was a huge blow to industry confidence, its reintroduction provides some hope that an end to bullying and thuggery deployed by building unions remains in sight. 

“Everyone knows there is a problem in building and construction with bullying - and every Senator who spoke on the previous Bill acknowledged there were some unions and some officials who constantly and deliberately do the wrong thing,” Ms Wawn said. 

“The problem is that most of these bad apples are in our industry and we have to wear the consequences of their bullying. This isn't a union busting Bill as many make out and there are lots of good unions out there – we just want the unions in our industry to be like those in every other industry. 

“We are deeply concerned that some organisations and officials would have taken last week’s Senate outcome as a green light to continue bullying, intimidation and thuggery, and called for the Parliament to make the Bill its first priority for 2020,” she said. 

“The historical data shows that building unions will likely rack up around $450,000 in court fines and penalties between now and the resumption of sittings in 2020, with the cost to industry being many times higher than that,” Ms Wawn said. 

“That’s almost half a million dollars of union members money which could be avoided if only building unions played by the rules like most other organisations seem able to do.

“You don’t need to break workplace laws to represent your members,” Ms Wawn said.

www.masterbuilders.com.au

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